1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus capable of recording and storing data from a storage medium which is presented as package media.
2. Background of the Invention
Various kinds of audio-visual equipment owned by the user have been becoming popular, generally allowing the user to individually enjoy musical and video software.
For example, the user owns typically an audio system for disc recording media such as a CD (Compact Disc, a trademark) or an MD (Mini Disc, a trademark). The user purchases a desired CD or MD which is available in the market as package media to be played back by using the audio system. The user may also purchase an MD as recordable media and creates an original disc by recording pieces of music selected by the user itself onto the MD. The MD is an optical magnetic disc or an optical disc with a diameter of 64 mm and can be used for recording a compressed audio signal of 80 minutes in length. In the following description, an MD is assumed as disc recording media unless otherwise specified.
By the way, development of a recording/playback apparatus to be used as new audio-visual equipment not available so far is under way. The new recording/playback apparatus uses typically recording media with a large storage capacity such as a hard disc for storing audio-data files and video-data files.
For example, package media owned by the user such as a CD is capable of recording typically a piece of music recorded on the CD onto typically a hard disc employed in the recording/playback apparatus by carrying out a dubbing operation. By employing a storage medium with a large storage capacity such as a hard disc in the recording/playback apparatus, the system is capable of storing for example all pieces of music recorded typically on a plurality of CDs or the like owned by the user in the recording/playback system.
When the user desires to play back a piece of music, for example, the user does not have to take the trouble to search the recording media for a CD or the like containing the desired piece of music and mount the CD or the like on the recording/playback apparatus. Instead, the user may just specify the desired piece of music and have the specified music read out and played back from the hard disc employed in the recording/playback apparatus. Thus, such a recording/playback apparatus is very convenient particularly for a user having a lot of recording media such as CDs. In addition, it is not necessary for the user to carry out operations like dismounting a storage medium such as a CD from the recording/playback apparatus and mounting another replacement medium thereon. As a result, the user is capable of easily enjoying typically pieces of music selected in accordance with the mood of the day for example and played back from the recording/playback apparatus.
By providing for example a portable recording/playback apparatus capable of transferring or copying data such as pieces of music from a storage medium like a hard disc employed in the recording/playback apparatus to the portable apparatus, some pieces of music that the user desires to listen to on that day can be selected from a large repertoire and typically copied from the recording/playback apparatus to the portable apparatus. In this way, the desired pieces of music can be played back from the portable recording/playback apparatus.
The user is thus capable of enjoying pieces of music or the like with ease by using such a recording/playback apparatus and such a portable recording/playback apparatus. In order to use the recording/playback apparatus as a musical server with a greater added value, the hard disc of the apparatus is used for storing not only data such as pieces of music, but also conceivably information related to the data as additional information appended to the data.
The additional information relevant to music or the like dubbed from a CD for example is typically information associated with musical data such as the title of the album, the name of the artist, the title of the song and the name of the song writer. The additional information can also be graphic data and a picture of the artist which normally appear on the jacket of the album.
By storing these pieces of additional information along with data such as pieces of music in the recording/playback apparatus, the recording/display apparatus is capable of displaying the name of a song, the name of an artist and a relevant picture such as graphic data or a photograph appearing on the jacket of an album to the user.
Assume for example that the user dubs data from a CD on hand to a hard disc employed in the recording/playback apparatus. In this case, there is raised a problem as to how the recording/playback apparatus acquires additional information to the data dubbed by the user.
As one method to append such additional information, an organization is established to render services to provide additional information. In this case, it is conceivable to connect the recording/playback apparatus owned by the user to the service organization by a transmission line. To put it in detail, when the user dubs musical data from a CD owned by the user to a hard disc employed in the recording/playback apparatus, the recording/playback apparatus transmits information identifying the CD to the service organization. The information identifying the CD typically indicates the title and the type of the CD as a product. The service organization then recognizes the attributes of the CD such as the title of the album, the names of the artists and the titles of the songs on the basis of the information on the basis of the identification information, and transmits the attributes to the recording/playback apparatus as additional information. The recording/playback apparatus records the additional information received from the service organization onto the hard disc, associating the information with the musical data.
The information used for identifying the attributes of the CD is used in the service organization as a key to search for the additional information. It is desirable that the information serving as a key such as the title and the type of the CD as a product can be fetched by the recording/playback apparatus from the CD and is unique to the attributes of the CD. It is thus conceivable to use data of the TOC (Table of Contents) of the CD, which serves as management information of the CD, as information serving as a key.
The service organization needs a data base for storing additional information associated with TOC data serving as the title and the type of the CD as a product for CDs available in the market.
In a system wherein TOC data is used as a key to search the data base for additional information as described above, however, there is raised a problem that it is quite within the bounds of possibility that incorrect additional information is obtained as a search result.
This is because, as is generally known, the numbers of tracks having recorded data and start positions of the tracks on a CD are controlled by using the TOC, and it is quite within the bounds of possibility that CDs with titles different from each other have the same TOC data. On the other hand, CDs having the same title may have different pieces of TOC data due to conditions of the process to manufacture the discs.
For the reasons described above, when TOC data is used as a key for searching a data base for additional information, the additional information obtained as a result of the search may have nothing to do with data dubbed from the CD at all, or there may be a case in which no additional information is obtained from the search. As a result, the system has a lack of reliability.